Books &Disney &Illustration &Peet 25 Feb 2009 09:03 am
So Dear To My Heart
- If the Little Golden Books had ever published a novel, this is it. So Dear To My Heart is an encapsulation of the film by Helen Palmer with illustrations by Bill Peet “adapted from the film.”
This collectible item comes from the amazing John Canemaker collection, and I thank him for the loan.
The pictures are mostly small spot illustrations done in ink and watercolor. They’re very simple and give a good indication of Bill Peet’s future books (though he often used pencil for that and allowed the scumbled pencil to add texture.)
Here are the first 20 illustrations (more to come in a future post); there are many. One illustration per page with 125 pages.
(Click any image to enlarge.)
To be continued
on 25 Feb 2009 at 9:51 am 1.Tim Rauch said …
Such extraordinarily communicative, beautiful images! Thanks for posting.
on 25 Feb 2009 at 10:06 am 2.Mark Mayerson said …
I had no idea this existed. Thanks for sharing it and I’m looking forward to seeing the rest.
on 25 Feb 2009 at 12:57 pm 3.Eddie Fitzgerald said …
Very nice!!!!
on 25 Feb 2009 at 3:35 pm 4.Jenny Lerew said …
I have this next to me at my desk at work. Excellent book, and great post as always.
on 25 Feb 2009 at 6:03 pm 5.Kellie Strøm said …
128 pages! Were there ever any other Golden Books that long? Is it the same page size as a regular Golden Book? Really lovely drawings.
on 25 Feb 2009 at 6:15 pm 6.Simon W-H said …
Lovely stuff..thanks!
on 25 Feb 2009 at 11:47 pm 7.John Gough said …
“So Dear to My Heart” was a fine Disney film, with inserted cartoon animations.
Clearly this unusual Golden Book is an illustrated book-form of the film.
But the Disney version is itself based on a fine novel, Midnight and Jeremiah (although also re-released using the Disney film title), by Sterling North.
Nowadays we might consider this a CHILDREN’S film. In its time it was FAMILY entertainment.
As a novel, North’s story was NOT a children’s film, even though a child is central.
I suspect that the book, or the film, may have influenced E.B. White’s classic “Charlotte’s Web”. The parallels are striking.
on 26 Feb 2009 at 9:08 am 8.Michael said …
Only in the current market do we differentiate between “children’s” or “family” films. They didn’t categorize such things in the 40′s.
on 05 Dec 2010 at 7:52 pm 9.Daniel Caylor said …
I just read these are Peet’s first published story drawings. Surprising it’s not going for more than $11 (including shipping) on eBay.